Packard Repays Campaign for Job-Recruitment Costs

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) has acknowledged that he violated federal election standards by using campaign funds to finance a newspaper reporter’s trip to Washington for a job interview.

Packard also has written a check from his personal bank account to repay the $773.49 in campaign money used for the recruitment trip.

Scott Thomas, a political reporter for The Blade-Tribune of Oceanside, who covered Packard’s race against Democratic opponent Howard Greenebaum, flew to the capital in early July to interview for the post of press secretary on the congressman’s staff.

Switching Jobs

A few days after he returned from the three-day trip, Thomas gave notice that he was leaving the newspaper, but he opted to take a job with a local political consultant, Jack Orr of Encinitas, rather than the position with Packard.

Thomas said he had traveled to Washington knowing full well that he would be accepting one of the two offers and would not be employed by the Blade-Tribune much longer. During his remaining days with the paper after giving notice, he wrote one short article about a Packard campaign appearance.

In an Oct. 21 letter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Packard said he originally intended to use office expense money to pay for Thomas’ trip, but discovered such expenditures are forbidden.

The congressman turned to his campaign funds to reimburse Thomas for the trip, Packard said in an interview Monday.

But, when he reported the trip reimbursement in his Oct. 15 federal campaign expense report, Greenebaum spotted it.

Influence Charge

A long-shot candidate in the heavily Republican 43rd Congressional District race, Greenebaum brought the issue to the attention of several newspaper reporters, saying it appeared that Packard was trying to influence Thomas’ coverage of the race.

Packard chafed at that allegation Monday, saying it was “a slap at Scott and a slap at me. I needed a good press secretary who knows the district, so it’s not an unusual thing to look at the press people in my own district. There were no ulterior motives whatsoever.”

But the congressman acknowledged that, after checking, his staff had determined that the use of campaign funds for a recruitment trip is forbidden under federal election standards.

Packard called the expenditure “an innocent mistake” and noted that he was quick to make amends, pulling money from his own checking account to repay his campaign committee.

“I’m not questioning the rule, I just didn’t realize there was a rule on it,” Packard said.

Packard said he feels Greenebaum is attempting to “milk an incident that really doesn’t warrant it. It’s much ado about nothing.”